I just purchased an NEC 3500A and have been reviewing the forum for media. From the looks of it, the consensus is that Taiyo Yuden media is the best. Two questions. First, is this the best media? (I plan on backing up movies and data, but mostly movies.) Second, is there an online retailer than is preferred/trusted by members of the forum for purchasing Taiyo Yuden DVDs. There seems to be many rip-offs. I assume there is no 16x media out right now, so 8x would be fine. Thank you.

I'm going to be ordering some TY media over the next couple of days, but was wondering what people generally find best for compatibility in players, especially with an unmodchipped XBox? So far I've only tried some TDK and Verbatim (can't buy TY locally, in fact there's nowhere nearby that sells DVD media at all), DVD+RW has worked, but DVD-RW and DVD+R (not booktype changes though) haven't.

It seems that +R is much more expensive too. Both TY and Ritek seems reasonable for -R, but I'll be paying twice as much for +R :( In fact I haven't seen anywhere nearby selling TY +R at all.

I use this brand since i bought my old Pioneer 105. I have burned i don't know probably over a thousand dvd-r's without problems at all. Like one member said "If the dvd player don't play them none will!!! Mostly i am in video editing (weddings,vaptisms,dvd - authoring services). The Taiyo Yuden media kicks a** in general not only on dvd-r's but in cdr's.

I'm in California....Just purchased a 3500A and am looking to try a TY to see if it's compatible with my DVD players....where can I purchase a small pack at a reasonable price just for this purpose before buying 50 of them?

Ok. So second newbie question. It appears when you backup a movie, the size is typically above 5Gig without compression. As such, should I just wait for the price on the 8Gig (like the meritline 8Gig) media? I would rather not lose quality.

I'm in California....Just purchased a 3500A and am looking to try a TY to see if it's compatible with my DVD players....where can I purchase a small pack at a reasonable price just for this purpose before buying 50 of them?